In which Yifan becomes a part of Kyungsoo’s collection.

Kyungsoo’s world consists out of tangible memories. His thoughts run wild, but can only go as far as his hands can reach. The objects and spaces in his house are his memories; his life revolves around them and only them. The outside world is unknown to him, but the world knows of him, ‘the boy who sees through objects’.

-

“What are you looking for?” Yifan asks cautiously.
“That moment.” Kyungsoo frantically searches drawers and closets, placing his hands on every wall of the rooms he passes.
“Which one?”

“I can’t remember.” His fingers are at his mouth and he keeps picking on his bottom lip whenever he pauses to think about where he put one of his memories.

As much as Yifan wants to help, he doesn’t quite understand what he’s supposed to look for. It could be anything. So he just watches as the boy moves back and forth in front of him. By the way he meticulously puts back everything after touching them, no one would have guessed that the boy was… blind. His face holds the most beautiful eyes which unfortunately have never been used. Yifan looks around him and beholds the great collection of things. Every corner of every room was filled with objects, materials and other stuff. He didn’t dare to touch anything, afraid that he would distort the stories behind them. He hears Kyungsoo murmur in the background, naming everything that comes to his mind whenever he picks up something.

“Running, twelve, regret, closed.”

“Listening, fifteen, comfort, open.”

“Waiting, six, frustration, closed.”

“Ink, t--twenty…”

When Yifan turned around, he saw Kyungsoo suddenly frozen behind a desk, holding a pen in his hands. The objects he just verified lay close to his grasp; a pair of shoes, a music cassette and a pot of glue. Kyungsoo had a memory problem and Yifan had always thought it was odd how the boy could exactly remember everything that came with whatever he touched. It took a while before he understood the method of how Kyungsoo’s mind worked, why he’d mumble stuff like that. But somehow Yifan was now able to follow everything that came out of the boy’s mouth.

At the age of twelve he had gotten those pair of shoes and probably never took them off as he sprinted around the house with them, which would explain why they were all worn out. He must have suffered from the pain in his feet afterwards, hence the regret. That chapter is now closed; the shoes were tiny, they didn’t fit him anymore.

            At the age of fifteen, he’d discovered that cassettes were magical things. If Yifan was correct, he’d seen a whole closet full of them in Kyungsoo’s bedroom. Music was something close to his heart; it calmed him down and made him smile. He couldn’t get enough of it. And he’d rather die than give away the walkman he keeps in his pocket at all times. There is not a single cassette in this house that he hadn’t listened to at least twice. And he’d start all over again when he gets the chance. This chapter will always be open. Yifan reminded himself every time he came over to bring a new cassette. But for someone who lives in a digital world, it’s hard to find something so precious. He wished he hadn’t thrown away his collection when he was younger.

            Waiting was something Kyungsoo hated; he didn’t have patience at all. And waiting for a drop of glue to dry was probably something he dreaded the most. Yifan wondered how the scowl on Kyungsoo’s face would have looked like at the age of six. The pot of glue must have caused him a hard time, it also showed how persistent the kid was in his early years, not giving up; because the content of the pot was pretty much empty. That chapter was closed, however, he didn’t throw it away… he never throws away anything, even if the objects were of no use to him. He wouldn’t throw away any of his memories.

-

At first Yifan didn’t understand. Working in a store as a part time mechanic for electrical devices, he ended up in the music department, fixing up audio installations and stereo sets. It struck him as a joke when someone mentioned that he needed to patch up an old walkman. Walkman… an ancient device which the store hasn’t sold for over a decade now; someone was living in the prehistory he mused. And the funnier thing was that the woman, who came in with the requested task, didn’t bring the piece of junk with her, demanding the store to provide her with a mechanic who would fix it at her home. And as the poor part time working student he was, Yifan was forced upon this duty.

“Please don’t touch anything, don’t walk around and… don’t ask him too many questions.” Yifan didn’t have the time to think before the petite woman, Mrs. Do, let him into their house and headed towards the kitchen to grab a file of papers. Yifan assumed the woman was a freak by the way the whole living room was filled with stacks and stacks of materials and things. He set down his toolbox on the table corner in the dining area and fished out some of the contents, wondering what she meant with asking questions to whom.

            “I need to leave but, please stay here in this space at all times and don’t enter any other rooms.” Before he could ask anything the woman rushed up to the staircase shouting, “Honey! Someone is here to fix your music player!” With that and a small wave, she left the house through the door Yifan came in.

The first mantra Yifan endlessly heard was ‘Humming, fifteen, happiness, open…” The boy who descended the stairs was mumbling inaudibly when Yifan almost grew tired of waiting. He was about to give the kid a piece of his mind until he was met with two big owlish eyes looking straight through him. The boy had pitch black hair and was about as tall as his mother, his forehead only reaching up to Yifan’s chin.

            “Can you fix it? Please, please open.” Yifan was unsure what the boy was pleading for him to open, but he was sure he brought the wrong tool equipment for the ancient thing he was holding up. He didn’t have the heart to leave straight away, and decided to at least locate the problem that the device was causing. Large dark eyes which didn’t seem to blink made him uncomfortable at a certain point when they were both seated at the dining table. “Eating, ten, joy, open.”
            “Can you pass me the screwdriver?” Yifan asked as he fiddled with the buttons which were stuck inside the walkman. “I can’t.” The boy told directly and Yifan was surprised by the reaction to say the least. “What? It’s right there.” he was starting to get an irritating itch when he watched the other playing with his fingers practically next to the tool he required. “I’m sorry.” The boy said with a smile on his face. Yifan let out an agitated sigh and grabbed the thing himself, accidentally brushing his hand to one of the boy’s fingers which made the kid flinch for some reason. That’s when the first suspicion came, along with the question that Yifan ignored.

            “My name is Kyungsoo, what’s yours?” It was in no avail, the walkman was too outdated and the screwdriver wasn’t going to fit, as well as the rest of the tools he brought with him. “It’s Yifan, and I’m failing to repair this.” The silence that followed made Yifan look up and saw the silent scream in the other’s eyes louder than anything else.

            “No! You can’t! Humming, fifteen, happiness, open, open… open!” Kyungsoo, as the boy was called, snatched the walkman right out of Yifan’s hands when he offered to take it with him to fix it at the store.

            “You’ll get it back tomorrow.” Yifan tried calling after him, but the boy wouldn’t listen and ran up the stairs with the still broken walkman in his hands, never stopping with his mumbling.

            “Can’t, can’t, no, open, open, must keep memory. Can’t forget, no, can’t give away. Mine.” That day Yifan left the house with a deep confused sigh and unanswered questions. And he was wrong to have no intentions of returning the day after.

“My name is Kyungsoo, what’s yours?” Yifan eyed the boy warily. Is he kidding? He had brought the right tools with him the next day and Mrs. Do let him in before leaving him alone with the kid again, with the same instructions.

            “Please don’t touch anything, don’t walk around and… don’t ask him too many questions.” The owlish eyes were staring him down while Yifan was fiddling with the walkman case.

            “I told you, it’s Yifan.” He frowned and sighed as he looked up to see the boy’s eyes finally averted down to the table.

“I’m sorry… I forget.”

            “Don’t you mean forgot?” He mumbled and turned back to the instrument in his hands.

            “No… I forget.” Kyungsoo smiled unlacing his fingers, and sticking out his hand.

            “Can I shake hands with you?” Yifan chuckled at the childishness of it all, but extended his own to meet the other. Kyungsoo’s hand was soft compared to his and tiny to say the least. The handshake was strange he thought, but that was only because Kyungsoo suddenly got goosebumps running down his arm. Yifan could practically see the boy shivering in front of him.

            “You have rough hands.” He said, as he brought his other hand to meet Yifan’s knuckles.

            “Well, I am a mechanic so…” Yifan could see the boy tracing his fingers around the rings he was wearing. “You have to let go of me if you want me to finish repairing this.” It seemed as if Kyungsoo unwillingly gave back his hand and sat down not uttering any words furthermore.

            As much as Yifan wished to finish this task and return to the store, his curious mind worked against him. “Hey…” he hesitated for a second, remembering Mrs. Do’s instructions, but his mouth was faster than his brain. “Could you pass me the… screwdriver?” The boy who fell silent for a while started fidgeting with his fingers again. “I can’t—”

            “It’s in the toolbox right next to you.” Yifan tried while keeping an eye on the other’s movements.
            Kyungsoo slowly started tracing the table top with his fingers until he was met with a steel container. Blinking a couple of times he rummaged through the content and fished out a hammer. His hand closed around the head and put it back, just to grab another wrong tool.
            “Kyungsoo…” The boy dropped the wrench out of his hand and winced at the startling sound. Yifan almost felt bad about what he was doing. “… are you—”
            “I can’t!” Kyungsoo interrupted him and clenched his hands together. “I can’t pass you the screwdriver.” His voice rose a few octaves as he closed his eyes. “I’m sor—”
            “I know…” This time Yifan cut him short and cleared his throat. “The screwdriver is in my hands.” This little act proved that his suspicion of the previous day was correct.

            Yifan had expected the boy to get angry, but he merely asked to let him hold the tool for a bit. “F-fixing. Twenty two… relief, open.” He mumbled as he turned the screwdriver around in his hand repeatedly. This time Yifan’s brain held his curiosity in check.

“My name is Kyungsoo, what’s yours?” Kyungsoo was all smiles when Yifan arrived the next day to finish off his task.
            “Yifan… it’s Yifan.” He gave Mrs. Do a questioning glance before she left, but her expression was one he didn’t understand. It seemed somewhat pleading. They sat down at the same dining table as the boy handed over his walkman to him.

            “I was here yesterday, don’t you… remember?” Yifan noticed the smile being wiped off Kyungsoo’s face for a fraction of a second. It took a minute before any of the two started moving. Like the day before, the boy extended his hand out to him.
            “I’m sorry, I forget… Can I shake your hand?” Yifan figured that it might be a way the boy identified people since he’s blind; so he placed his hand into the smaller one. Kyungsoo’s other hand traced his knuckles and rings again, and his smile returned; unconsciously the taller did the same.

            “Mechanic Yifan remember?” When he replaced his hand with the screwdriver, he could practically hear the boy chuckle.

            “F-fixing. Twenty two… relief, open.”

            “What is that you’re always mumbling about?” he asked cautiously.

            “That’s… something I do when…” Kyungsoo fell silent for a while, as though thinking about the question deeply, as he proceeded to touch every cm of the tool in his hands. “When I… register a memory I guess. I have a mind retention problem… I can only remember certain things for a period of time.”

             It’s not that Yifan didn’t respect Mrs. Do or her instructions but, he couldn’t help it but to ask more and more questions. The boy seemed to take a longer pause for every next answer he had. Thinking, measuring and answering at best he could.

            “I need to touch things to know what they are; not just because my eyes are blind… but my mind is too. Everything I have around me, tell me who I am, what memory I have of them and why I have them.” As Yifan fiddled with the last part of the walkman, he gave his surroundings another look and took in the sight in front of him. Hundreds of objects scattered over the space in the room. Each one of them a particular memory Kyungsoo stored in them. That must be the reason he wasn’t allowed to touch anything; afraid that he’d tamper with the stories put into them.

            “I know it makes no sense, I’m weird like that.” Kyungsoo smiled as he rolled the screwdriver around in his hand. Yifan unwillingly snorted at his words.

            “If I don’t touch something for a while, I forget about it entirely… until I get my hands on them again. I have more trouble with registering new memories than calling back old ones.”

            “Is that why you… didn’t remember me?” Yifan’s curiosity was doing the talking for him now. Kyungsoo explained how he merely remembered someone being here to repair his walkman, but that’s only because his mother told him, and the broken device was a constant reminder. Yifan looked at the now already fixed instrument in his own hands, but wondered about something else.

            “But you shook my hand, will you remember me tomorrow?”

            “Tomorrow?” Kyungsoo asked as he blinked a couple of times and gave back the screwdriver with a roll on the table, smiling at the sound it produced. Yifan cleared his throat as he watched the boy and did something he’d never do. He screwed off a piece from the walkman’s interior and put it away in his pocket.
            “I have to come back again to finish fixing this.” He told and put the walkman back on the table slowly pushing it towards the boy. He quickly thought about an excuse to tell Mrs. Do. She’d just have to believe him when he says that this ancient device is just too hard to repair.
            “It’s different with people.” Kyungsoo said reaching out and taking Yifan’s hand in his own. He rubbed over the rings again and frowned. “I’d need something to remember you by.”
            “How about this?” Yifan asked and before he knew what he was doing, the ring around his finger was shoved into one of Kyungsoo’s hands. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s different with people…” The boy smiled but shook his head.

            “I could sit with you here at this table for a long period of time and forget who you are in the process. But I won’t forget that you’re a mechanic who is fixing my walkman, since I still remember that being broken.” He let out a tiny sigh and leaned back on his chair. Keeping the ring would only allow him to remember Yifan for what he was; but he wouldn’t know who he was in person.

            “What about your mom? How do you…” Kyungsoo smiled at that.
            “I won’t forget her… I can’t forget her because everything around me reminds me of her.” He tapped on the table they were sitting at and touched the chair next to him. “Ever since I was born, she’s lived in my memories; I think she might be my first memory.” She’s mine. Kyungsoo explained that although physically she might be away for a longer period of time, that wouldn’t make the image he has of her fade away.

            “I’d always know that I have a mom, she just needs to remind me that it’s her…” He told Yifan that one day he made her cry because she had to work an extra shift and was running late; he refused to let her inside the house because his mother wasn’t home. Only after she’d buried him in her arms, did he realize what he’d done wrong and why she was crying. Yifan was so immersed in what the boy had to say, that he hadn’t noticed the sad glint in his eyes. Kyungsoo wouldn’t remember Yifan.

“My name is Ky—”
“Kyungsoo, I know.” The next day Yifan walked past Mrs. Do and took the boy’s hand in his own. And by the smile that followed on his face, he was sure Kyungsoo remembered who he was.
            “I’ll leave you two to it then.” Mrs. Do sounded more relieved than anything else. Yifan hadn’t asked her any questions nor did he make any comments about her son. She left the house with a small smile and a pat on Yifan’s shoulder.
            “You remember… right?”
            Yifan pretended to fix something, while all he did was putting back the interior piece he had stolen yesterday. Kyungsoo waited anxiously and couldn’t sit still, constantly swaying his feet and brushing the table top with his hands. Patience wasn’t one of his virtues. At some point Yifan found himself watching the boy instead of doing anything.
            “Yifan, is it done? Is it working again? Is it?” Kyungsoo couldn’t hold in his smile and let his heart shaped lips expose his teeth in between.
            “Almost.” Yifan whispered and tapped on the thing making it seem like he was busy. Kyungsoo was wearing his ring around his thumb and would occasionally push it back onto its base, preventing it from sliding off.
            “Would you have known who I was if I hadn—”
            “No, just after your handshake I remembered where I got this from.” Kyungsoo offered the ring back to him, but Yifan pushed his hand away.
            “What’s your riddle on this one?” Kyungsoo frowned and shook his head. “I haven’t come up with anything… I didn’t expect it to keep it as mine. For now, it’s just that I know it belongs to someone who’d come back to get it. At this moment, I know that it’s yours.”
            “What would you… register it as?”
            “It’s difficult to say… if it were something that was mine to begin with… it would have a verb to confirm the function or what I associate it with, such as wearing. And then followed by the age I acquired it, so right now twenty two. Then the emotion that meets the object in my opinion, in this case that would be…” Kyungsoo lifted up his hand and turned it upside down just to have the ring slide off his finger immediately. “Annoying.” He smiled at the sound that was produced by the falling jewelry colliding with the table top. “The ring will be labeled open until it doesn’t serve to be useful anymore.”
            Yifan nodded at the explanation, but didn’t realize that Kyungsoo wasn’t able to see it. The boy lifted up his head and Yifan could have sworn that he looked straight at him.
            “Wearing, twenty two, annoying, open… so that’s what it is then.” He tried.
            “No, not quite… The ring is yours and you gave it to me in an entire different scenario. The verb that fits here is not simply wearing, but more like waiting. I was waiting to give it back to someone. The age… it shouldn’t be mine, it should be yours.”
            “Twenty four.” Yifan added.

            “I’d be either waiting to grow anxious or excited to meet the person whom it belongs to and it’d be open until I give it back.” Kyungsoo rolled the ring in his hands and gave it one last rub before presenting it to Yifan again and started summarizing everything up.
            “Waiting, twenty four…” he paused for a second as though realizing something when the corner or his mouth tilted into a smile. “Exciting, clos—” Before he could finish his riddle, Yifan closed Kyungsoo’s hand around the ring and pushed it back.
            “Open.” He corrected the boy’s sentence. “You can keep it.”

            “But—”

            “How do you practice names?” Yifan was desperate; he wanted Kyungsoo to remember him when he would leave this time. 

---

A/N:  I hope you guys could make some sense out of the weird storyline. I actually wanted to write an one shot, but I decided to split it into a few parts. I'm not sure how many there will be though, I might add shreds and pieces lateron to the story after finishing it too. Tell me what you think, feedback is always appreciated, thankyou~! ^^

Tumblr | Twitter | Instagram